Are guns the problem?

The recent mass shooting of innocent children in Sandy Hook, Conneticut was a tragedy of huge impact. This occurrence has prompted the call for governmental action in attempt to prevent future similar episodes. The main action that one hears in today's "Lame-stream" media is the call for increased gun control, and many would love to see our government confiscate all guns and prohibit private gun ownership. Private gun ownership is guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution, and it is imperative that this not be allowed to be circumvented by our liberal socialistic government.

Let's get to one of the main problems underlying the increase in gun violence inthe US. We have recently heard that it is the increased fascination with gun ownership, or the increased interest in violence. The one thing that is universally omitted from finger-pointing blame is the number of mentally-ill people on the streets today because of govermental policies that date back to the 1950's, at which time there began the movement of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, removing them from state mental institutions and opting for outpatient community-oriented local mental health treatment. This program was given impetus by the government under president John F. Kennedy, and by the mid 1960's was in full swing across the US, resulting in significant emptying of State Mental Hospitals by the 1970's.

It is said that three things brought about the change from Institutionalization of the mentally-ill to outpatient treatment. 1. Criticism of Mental Institutions. 2. Recent development of new drugs for the treatment of mental diagnoses. 3. The over-riding need to reduce the cost of caring for the mentally-ill. The order of the importance of these, I believe is the reverse of what I have listed.

Health care costs have continued to escalate even as most mental health care is provided in the outpatient setting. One cannot provide mentally ill patients in the outpatient setting with appropriate medications and have any guarantee that they will take the medicine as prescribed.

Too often these individuals will percieve that they do not need them, that there is nothing wrong with them, and will discontinue the medications on their own when not given under supervision.

Today, much press coverage is given to the problems of homelessness, and crime in general, resulting in an ever-increasing prison population. It has been stated that many of the mentally ill have been displaced from mental institutions to the prision institutions.

When one analyzes the circumstances involving the individuals who have conducted recent mass shootings, it is determined that these individuals were mentally-ill, and somehow they fell through the cracks as far as diagnosis and/or treatment. These individuals should never have had access to a firearm, and indeed, in all probability should not have even been on the streets, but should have been institutionalized in a Mental Health Facility. All means possible need to be employed to prevent persons with mental illness from having ownership or availability of a firearm.

This nation has gun laws. Do they need to be re-evaluated? Certainly. Do they need to be tweaked? Certainly. Do they need to be inforced? Most definitely. Does gun ownership need to be prohibited? Most definitely NOT. If the federal government were to attempt to ban gun ownership, I can almost guarantee that it would be about as successful as the Prohibition Laws of

1920-1933 for the prohibition of whiskey in this country.

Gun ownership is a very hot topic of the moment, and the banning of certain types of gun ownership is a very controversial topic. All the flurry of present discussion is occurring in the aftermath of the recent tragedy at Sandy Hook, as it has arisen after every similar event in recent memory. If one wants to accertain at any meaningful preventative measures to stop mass shootings and a host of other similarly related issues, such as homelessness and crime, one must address the real underlying issue. The real issue is not that of gun ownership, but of increased and improved diagnosis and treatment of the mentally-ill of this country, up to and including the reintroduction of increased institutionalization of the mentally-ill. We must do a better job of providing treatment for the mentally-ill in our country. Sure the cost will be considerable, but until this is done, there will continue to be other related events somewhere in the country carried out by individuals who have failed to have been properly diagnosed and/or treated for a mental illness. Can we afford to do less?

William McCutchen, Jr., D.O

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Are guns the problem?

The recent mass shooting of innocent children in Sandy Hook, Conneticut was a tragedy of huge impact. This occurrence has prompted the call for governmental action in attempt to prevent future